"Seventh Step to Inner Freedom: Be honest about yourself "by Joan Chittister

This step to inner freedom

means you can stop judging others,

and really begin to hear

the caring and insightful criticism of others,

because you have finally

admitted to yourself

both your highest potential

and your greatest weaknesses.

Once you recognize

to what depths you are capable of sliding,

you stop defending yourself

from other people’s criticism of you,

and you stop blaming everybody else

for what you have surely done.

Gone is the defensiveness

that has cemented you

in the unwillingness to change.

In this acceptance of your own meager virtues

and your own massive failures,

you have the chance to understand

the failures of others.

You have the opportunity to become kind.

The seventh step to freedom

asks you to accept the idea

that you have plenty of room for growth.

It opens you to new possibilities within yourself.

You can stop saying,

“Well too bad, that’s just the way I am,”

and begin to say,

“There is more that I can be.”

This step to freedom

gives you a new perspective on life,

opens your eyes to the good in the world,

and makes hope ageless.

 —from The Way to Inner Freedom: A Guided Journal by Joan Chittister (Benetvision)